The proliferation of transaction cards, which allowed the cardholder to pay with credit rather than cash, started in the United States in the early 1950s. Initial transaction cards were typically restricted to select restaurants and hotels and were often limited to an exclusive class of individuals. Since the introduction of plastic credit cards, the use of transaction cards have rapidly proliferated from the United States, to Europe, and then to the rest of the world. Transaction cards are not only information carriers, but also typically allow a consumer to pay for goods and services without the need to constantly possess cash, or if a consumer needs cash, transaction cards allow access to funds through an automatic teller machine (ATM). Transaction cards also reduce the exposure to the risk of cash loss through theft and reduce the need for currency exchanges when traveling to various foreign countries. Due to the advantages of transaction cards, hundreds of millions of cards are now produced and issued annually, thereby resulting in need for companies and individuals to protect against forgery and theft.
Initially, the transaction cards often included the issuer's name, the cardholder's name, the card number, and the expiration date embossed onto the card. The cards also usually included a signature field on the back of the card for the cardholder to provide a signature to protect against forgery and tempering. Thus, the initial cards merely served as devices to provide data to merchants and the only security associated with the card was the comparison of the cardholder's signature on the card to the cardholder's signature on a receipt along with the embossed cardholder name on the card. However, many merchants often forget to verify the signature on the receipt with the signature on the card.
Due to the popularity of transaction cards, transaction cards now also include graphic images, designs, photographs and security features. A recent security feature is the incorporation of a diffraction grating, or holographic image, into the transaction card which appears to be three dimensional and which substantially restricts the ability to fraudulently copy or reproduce transaction cards because of the need for extremely complex systems and apparatus for producing holograms. A hologram is produced by interfering two or more beams of light, namely an object beam and reference beam, onto a photoemulsion to thereby record the interference pattern produced by the interfering beams of light. The object beam is a coherent beam reflected from, or transmitted through, the object to be recorded, such as a company logo, globe, character or animal. The reference beam is usually a coherent, collimated light beam with a spherical wave front. After recording the interference pattern, a similar wavelength reference beam is used to produce a holographic image by reconstructing the image from the interference pattern. However, the ability to copy and reproduce holograms or to take them from one card and place them on another has decreased the usefulness as a security feature.
The transaction card industry started to develop more sophisticated transaction cards that allowed the electronic reading, transmission, and authorization of transaction card data for a variety of industries. For example, magnetic stripe cards, smart cards, and calling cards have been developed to meet the market demand for expanded features, functionality, and security. In addition to the visual data, the incorporation of a magnetic stripe on the back of a transaction card allows digitized data to be stored in machine readable form. As such, magnetic stripe reader are used in conjunction with magnetic stripe cards to communicate purchase data received from a cash register device on-line to a host computer along with the transmission of data stored in the magnetic stripe, such as account information and expiration date. The magnetic strips are susceptible to tampering, have a lack of confidentiality of the information within the magnetic stripe, and have problems associated with the transmission of data to a host compute.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,468,379 (Naito et al.) discloses a thermal donor and receiver where a security layer could be transferred as a donor layer to the thermal substrate. This forgery preventative layer could contain special decorative effect, hologram layer, a diffraction grating, or florescent materials. This layer would most likely be placed over the thermal image making it susceptible to scratches, wear, and tampering. Furthermore, the diffraction grating and hologram could not be customized for each print.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,761 (Wen) discloses an identification document with invisible but retrievable embedded information. While this invention provides a high level of security, a machine is required to read the information and determine the authenticity of the ID card. It would be desirable to have an easily viewable way of detecting the authenticity of a security document.
U.S. 20020145049 (Lasch at al.) discloses a process for producing an opaque, transparent or translucent transaction card having multiple features, such as a holographic foil, integrated circuit chip, silver magnetic stripe with text on the magnetic stripe, opacity gradient, an invisible optically recognizable compound, a translucent signature field such that the signature on back of the card is visible from the front of the card and an active through date on the front of the card. While together, these transaction cards with the multiple security features produce an ID card that is difficult to tamper with or counterfeit, it would be very difficult and expensive to customize each ID card.
U.S. 20020069956 (Paulson) discloses an overlaminate for application to identification card substrates includes a plurality of overlaminate patches. Each patch has an end and is sized in accordance with the identification card substrates. A security mark is located in a predetermined position on each patch. Overlaminates tend to be expensive and require special equipment for application. Furthermore, the overlaminate system does not allow for the customization of the patches or security marks.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,419 (Stephenson et al.) describes a thermal printing method where the amount of gloss on a media can be altered. The method uses heat to change the surface properties of gelatin, which has many disadvantages. Gelatin can not achieve high roughness averages, thereby having a low distinction between the matte and glossy areas of the media. This small distinction between the matte and glossy states lead to a low signal to noise ratio and when scanning, leading to scanning errors. Gelatin also is very delicate, scratch prone, is self-healing, tends to flow over time thus changing its surface roughness and other properties time especially in high humidity and heat, and is dissolved if placed in water. Also, gelatin has a native yellow color, is expensive, and is tacky sticking to other sheets and itself. It would be desirable to use a material that had no coloration, is more stable in environmental conditions, and could have a higher surface roughness.